Allison
In the South Pacific in 1944, U.S. Marine Corporal Allison and his reconnaissance party had been in the process of disembarking from a U.S. Navy submarine when they were discovered and fired upon by the Japanese. The submarine's captain was forced to dive and leave the scouting team behind. Allison got to a rubber raft and after days adrift, reaches an island. He finds an abandoned settlement and a chapel with one occupant: Sister Angela, a novice nun who has not yet taken her final vows. She herself has been on the island for only four days; she came with an elderly priest to evacuate another clergyman, only to find the Japanese had arrived first. The frightened natives who had brought them to the island left the pair without warning, and the priest died soon after. For a while, they have the island to themselves, but then a detachment of Japanese troops arrives to set up a meteorological camp, forcing them to hide in a cave. When Sister Angela is unable to stomach the raw fish Allison has caught, he sneaks into the Japanese camp for supplies, narrowly avoiding detection. That night, they watch flashes from naval guns being fired in a sea battle over the horizon. The Japanese unexpectedly leave the island, and in both celebration and frustration, Allison gets drunk on sake. He blurts out that he loves Sister Angela and considers her devotion to her vows to be pointless, since they are stuck on the island "like Adam and Eve." She runs out into a tropical rain and falls ill as a result; Allison, now sober and contrite, finds her shivering. He carries her back, but the Japanese have returned, forcing them to retreat to the cave. Allison sneaks into the Japanese camp to get blankets. He kills a soldier who discovers him, alerting the enemy. To force him into the open, the Japanese set fire to the vegetation. When a Japanese soldier discovers the cave, Allison and Sister Angela have two choices: surrender or die from a hand grenade thrown inside. An ensuing explosion is not a grenade, but a bomb; the Americans have begun attacking the island in preparation for a landing. Allison comments that the landing will not be an easy one because when they returned, the Japanese brought with them four artillery pieces whose positions are well-concealed. In what he attributes to a message from God, Allison disables the artillery during the barrage that will precede the American assault, while the Japanese are still in their bunkers. He is wounded, but sabotages all the guns by removing their breechblocks, saving many American lives. After the landing, the Marine officers are puzzled by the missing breechblocks. Allison and Sister Angela say their goodbyes. Allison has reconciled himself to Sister Angela's dedication to Christ, though she reassures him that they will always be close "companions". After being found, Marines transfer Allison to the ship, with Sister Angela walking beside him. Category:Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison Category:Movie Characters Category:U.S. Marine Corps Category:Corporals Category:Non-Commissioned Officers Category:Living Characters Category:American Category:Robert Mitchum